I have met David Seymour. He is much smaller in real life than I expected. He is quiet, polite and amenable. He can be quite smart in the House, but let’s face it, he has a lot of material to work with.
One thing he is not is an “arrogant prick”.
It is completely inappropriate for the prime minister to call another member of the House by that name, even if it was intended to be off the record. Seymour quite smartly made sure her words were ‘on the record’ by asking the speaker to make her withdraw and apologise. The speaker had not heard the comment, but it didn’t matter: the exchange is now in Hansard for all posterity.
Seymour is way, way ahead of Ardern.
The exchange even made The Telegraph UK.
Perhaps conscious of the political damage her use of vulgar language might cause, Ms Ardern sent an apology to Mr Seymour, who thanked her.
“Jacinda Ardern texted me and said: ‘I apologise – it’s not something I should have said’”, the ACT leader told reporters.
“She said: ‘As my mum would say, if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it.’ I agree with that sentiment.
“I just said, ‘Thank you and I hope you have a very nice Christmas’ … it’s water off a duck’s back.”
Mr Seymour admitted later that he was “absolutely shocked and astonished at her use of language”.
“It’s very out of character for Jacinda and I’ve personally known her for 11 years,” he said.
I’m not sure that it is out of character for her. We all know how many lefties are extremely nasty underneath their outward facade. I have watched her deal with questions she doesn’t like. Her voice becomes steely, her eyes show menace and her facade of kindness disappears like a snowball in a microwave.
Noting that the question that upset the prime minister was about whether she had ever admitted a mistake as leader and then fixed it, he pointed out: “She couldn’t give a single example of when she’s admitted she’s wrong and apologised.”
Mr Seymour added: “I think she’s under a lot of pressure because her policies aren’t working.”
The Telegraph UK
And there it is. The truth. In the space of two years, she has gone from cock of the walk to a feather duster. I’m not sure I have ever seen such a spectacular fall from grace. Of course, using her majority to push through legislation that most people disagree with is likely to have that effect, and the arrogance that went with it has turned most people off her. The fact that she called David Seymour arrogant is one of the biggest ironies of the decade. We all know who is the arrogant one in this exchange.
Of course, if David Seymour had called Jacinda a similar name, not only would he have been forced to withdraw and apologise, but the media would have been howling from the rooftops calling for his resignation. But Jacinda doesn’t have to worry about that – that is the beauty of having bought and paid-for media. They do as they are told.
Seymour is right though. She has never apologised for the dreadful mistakes the government has made. She never apologised to the young KFC worker that she threw under a bus, nor to the so-called ‘prostitutes’ that went to Northland. She won’t apologise for the awful mess that was MIQ, even though so many Kiwis suffered dreadfully as a result of it. She never apologises for anything, because in her own eyes she can do no wrong.
That tells you what sort of a person she is, and David Seymour knows it.
The writing is on the wall for Jacinda and her government. She is clearly extremely rattled. From shouting at Ryan Bridge to calling David Seymour inappropriate names, her time is running out. She glossed over the by-election loss and swats away the dreadful poll results, but she knows the truth. The electorate dislikes her intensely, and it is all her own fault.
The big question now is – when will she resign? There is constant speculation that she will step down. Most of us know that her ego will never cope with losing the next election, and current polling indicates that the loss for Labour will be catastrophic.
Time to go, Jacinda. Let us try to heal the enormous damage that you have wrought on our beautiful country. There is no place for you here now.
